State to pay out $38M in casino profits to schools

“We’re happy that schools are benefiting from this additional funding and trust they will use it to benefit children,” John Charlton, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education, said.

Trotwood-Madison City Schools Treasurer Janice Allen said she was pleasantly surprised to learn her district will receive $53,796, which is more than she expected. While it’s a small amount, she said, “$53,000 is a teacher. We can look at it like that.”

Ohio voters in 2009 amended the state constitution to allow for casinos in Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati.

The state levies a 33 percent tax on adjusted gross gambling revenue, which is the amount after winners are paid. Ohio school districts share 34 percent of the tax revenue. Money is distributed from this fund to all school districts in Ohio based on student populations as certified by the Department of Education.

Ohio’s 88 counties and cities with more than 80,000 residents, including Dayton, also will be receiving their 51 percent share of the casino revenue tax by the end of the month. The city of Dayton and Montgomery County will each receive $662,423. The disbursement amounts also are based on population.

The remaining 15 percent is shared by cities that host casinos, the Casino Control Commission, the Ohio State Racing Commission, a law enforcement training fund and gambling addictions services.

As the largest district in the four-county area of Montgomery, Greene, Warren and Miami, Dayton Public Schools will receive the most at $289,096. Jefferson Twp. Local Schools with about 419 students will receive the smallest amount, $8,226.

Dayton Public spokeswoman Jill Moberley has said the district with about 15,000 students “would apply those funds to address the widening financial gap created by declining state and local revenues.”

Local tax revenues declined by $1.3 million from FY11 to FY12, and the district received $5.6 million less last year as a result of the accelerated phase out of Tangible Personal Property tax (TPP), Moberley said.

Kettering City Schools Superintendent Jim Schoenlein welcomed news that his district will receive $156,273 but he pointed out the district has a budget of $100 million.

“Anytime somebody gives us money that’s helpful but that’s the tiniest of drops in the bucket,” he said. “I wouldn’t want people to think that lottery money is going to solve the school funding problem. It’s not, not even close in anybody’s wildest dreams.”

In Miami County, Troy City Schools will be receiving the largest district payment.

Troy City Schools Superintendent Eric Herman was pleased to hear his district will get $96,405 this year and that amount will continue to grow after the fourth casino opens this spring in Cincinnati and all are open a full year.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s nice to have some increases in revenue at a time when all revenues are being cut.”

Herman said they’d likely put the casino revenue in the general fund for operations.

The Bradford Exempted Village School District will get the smallest in Miami County, $12,145.

Tracy Jarvis, treasurer for Springboro Community Schools in Warren County, said the $122,424 that her district will receive is about the same amount it lost in state budget cuts.

“Any dollar amount helps,” Jarvis said. “It breaks us even. The lottery money was supposed to save schools, but it didn’t. They give us one thing and take something else away. It’s been going on for years.”

Next month, Gov. John Kasich will unveil a new funding formula for Ohio schools.